Lunch time with mommy dearest
by k.legan
Summary: Ella interacts with the "platonic" pairing of her daughter and her co-worker.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: you know the drill, all characters owned by ABCfam and Sara Shepard, blah, blah, blah.

"Hey do you want to come with me?" Ella asks me as she walks by my room. "Uh, yeah, where?" I say closing my book and getting off my bed. My mother turns her head in the direction of my opened door way, "Ezra's," she simply states looking back to the papers in her hands. "He wanted me to drop off some papers before the teacher's meeting tomorrow so he can sign a few things." She explains motioning to the papers in her hands. I nod my head then speak up because she can't see my answer, "sure, let me just get my shoes on." I answer her while grabbing my right boot. "I'll meet you in the car, oh and can you drive, I still need to proof-read a few things." I nod again finishing the zipper on my left boot. I grab my keys and think 'this is going to be interesting.'

I meet my mother in the car and I pull out of the drive way on our way to Ezra's. I know the way to his apartment like the back of my hand. I could drive there in my sleep and if there was construction I could tell you three different back ways. I turn right after the stop sign on our street and keep going, past two more stop signs. I know next to turn left on Rose Park Av. then make a right at the next light. My mom is too engulfed in her papers that she doesn't give me directions. Not that I need them, but she doesn't know that. "Ok, turn left" she says looking up from her papers to see I'm already in the middle of making the left turn and ready to get in the far right lane in order to make the quick right that was coming up. "Then right on Darken Street" she says quickly looking at the street so I flip my blinker on and turn on to the street. "Uh, now where do I go?" I ask but I can point out Ezra's apartment building in a heart-beat. It's the big brick one on our left with the big oak tree to its right. "Just park," Ella says gathering her papers together and starts looking for a parking spot. Of course the best place to park is around the corner where there is little traffic but still close to the entrance. Ella points out a spot but I'm already turning left to park under the oak tree. What she doesn't know is that spot was in the sun with zero shade, and on the street where it could be dinged because the people around Ezra's building can-not parallel park to save their lives. I park in my usual spot right next to Ezra's Toyota and we get out. I lock the car and start to walk in the direction of his apartment but stop short and turn around to Ella and ask "which building is it?" She's looking down at some of her papers and says "uh, it's this one." She then points at his apartment building after looking down at the directions he gave her. I walk up to the front steps before Ella catches up with me and push the button to Ezra's. "Hey," I say with a smile on my face. "Oh, hey babe, I thought you weren't com…" Ezra says before I cut him off. "Hey, mom, I found the button to Ezra's." I say with a nervous look across my face. "Oh good!" Ella proclaims as she walks up the steps and stands next to me. Apparently she didn't hear what Ezra said, Thank God! I bet he's hitting himself in the head right now. I push the button again for my mom. "Hello?" Ezra says I'm sure with his boyish smile across his lips. I smile to myself, he's too cute. "Hi Ezra, its Ella can I come up?" Ella says smiling at me. "Yeah sure," he responds then buzzes us on through. My feet are in auto-pilot as I start walking to the stairs on the right. Ella walks up to Gary at the front desk and asks where to go. He points to the stairs and says to go up to the 3rd floor. Thankfully I kept my head turned as I walked past him and when he pointed or he probably would have said something like 'you know your way Aria' . We walk up the three flights and past the colorful blue window at the end of Ezra's hallway. I walk to 3B but as I hear my mother ask, "did he say 3D or 3B?" I start to wonder towards 3D to keep my mother's suspicions in check. I turn around to face Ella, "I think Gary said 3B." She gives me a questionable look. "How do you know his name?" I look at her non-chalantly, "he said it." I turn back around and knock on 3B for the thousandth time.

The door flew open to show Ezra's smiling face. He tries to look surprised to see me but I can tell he's more happy than 'surprised.' He breathes out my name practically being a whisper then sees Ella and greets her with a "hello. Good morning you two." He says looking from the both of us. My mother smiles and says good morning back and Ezra opens the door wider with a side step to let my mother in. I follow her and pass Ezra as he slides his hand down my arm to my fingers and holds on to them behind my back. I can't help the smile that forms on my lips at his sweet, simple show of affection. My mom looks around as I make my way to the couch. "This is nice, I like it" Ella says. Ezra smiles "thank you," then looks at me and gives me his 'see!' look. I laugh a bit, "Yeah you have a really big apartment." Ezra shakes his head, "oh you should see the bathroom, and it's quite spacious." My mom finishes looking around then comes and sits across from me on the futon chair. I look over and Ezra has the fridge open. He peers over to Ella "do you want anything to drink; milk, water?" Ella thinks looking at me as Ezra pulls out a can of raspberry lemonade, looks at me and smiles, and then shakes the drink. I nod and smile then my mother speaks up, "I'll have one too." Ezra pulls out three cans and walks over to us. He hands one to Ella then comes and sits next to me, a little too close for my mother's liking, I can tell by the look on her face, the one that seems to go unnoticed by Ezra. She lets it pass and moves on to the purpose of our little trip. "Ok these are for tomorrow when we talk about next term and the curricular and schedule changes." She says handing him a piece of paper for each subject she just mentioned. Ezra puts on his 'serious' face and leans forward a bit holding the papers. Ezra looks at the paper titled Schedule and asks "what's being changed about the schedule?" Ella laughs a bit, "Uh, well, Mrs. Welsh was pretty persistent on talking about that. Something about having too much time to for testing and not having enough time for class work to get anything accomplished." My mom says with a face that reads she has heard about it more than enough times. She and Ezra share a laugh, knowing how… well… determined Mrs. Welsh is. I sit up and scoot closer to Ezra to look over his shoulder, "wait what do you mean, change of schedule?" I look at my mother, to Ezra, and then back to the paper. "Well there's been talk about going from an every other period day to a full seven period schedule." Ella explains. "But then you can't get through a full lesson. That's harder on the students and teachers." I say looking from my mother to Ezra. "What do you mean?" Ezra asks me with the look on his face every time he is pleasantly surprised by me. I blush a bit then explain my thought, "well seeing you everyday got to be horrendously boring last year, but nothing would be accomplished." Ella laughs a bit and says, "So what you're saying is Ezra's extremely uninteresting, which we all knew, but there wouldn't be enough time to get to class, teach a lesson, and then get feedback?" Ezra and I nod, mine in agreement his in understanding. Ezra sets the paper down on the coffee table, "hmm interesting. Now I know who my real friends are." Ella and I laugh then I look back at Ezra, "but that's interesting. Good thought, but I'm going to remember what you said the next time I grade one of your tests." I raise my eyebrows, "ah!" Ezra shakes his head while standing up and smiling, "Ms. Montgomery, that's what you get for starting trouble." Then he starts to mess my hair up. "Well, Fitz I just might have to go to the school board and tell them you're harassing a student!" I say putting my hands up to catch his from messing my hair up more. I stand up next to him, "and I have a witness!" I exclaim looking at my mom who has been laughing her head off ever since we started this 'fight'. She shrugs her shoulders, "don't know what to tell you Fitz" She smiles and I join her as Ezra looks from the both of us "so where do I sign?" Ezra asks smiling now, looking down at the papers on the coffee table. She laughs one last time then bends down and shows him each line to sign as I walk around Ezra and over to the TV set. I look through the movies and pick up _Gone with the Wind_ and shake it to get Ezra's attention. He looks up and smiles, and then slightly nods his head meaning we can watch that latter tonight, then looks back down to finish signing.

Ezra and my mom finish signing papers and my mom looks up to Ezra and sets her pen down. "Ezra would you like to have lunch with Aria and I today. I figured since we're here, why not?" I come back around from the TV set to sit next to Ezra again, "when did we decide to go to lunch?" My mother looks over at me and shoots me a raised eyebrow. "I did, just know." Ella says grabbing her pen, capping it, and then stands up. I nod, 'oh, what happened to fun mommy?' I thought then lay back into the couch. Ezra notices my mood and looks over and smiles at me, "sounds fun." I smile back and grab our empty cans and stand up. Ella looks down at Ezra, "may I use that extremely big bathroom?" Ezra laughs and points to the door across from his bed, "Sorry if there's a mess!" He exclaims as Ella walks to the bathroom. Ezra looks over to see I moved to the kitchen to recycle our cans and stands up to meet me in the kitchen. "Hey, what's with the mood? Two seconds ago you were all smiles and laughs. What happened to those beautiful pearls?" I blush and turn around to face Ezra. I set my hands on the counter then look at the cabinets instead of his blue eyes. He sets his hands on my face and manages to turn me to look at him. "Is this about lunch?" I shake my head and reach up to wrap my arms around his neck. "No, it's about my mom. She's just so demanding and doesn't include me in her decisions." Ezra looks me in the eyes. "Really because the other night that's what you said you love about your mom, that she is independent. And you're just like her, admit it." Ezra smiles more, "it's cute." I roll my eyes, "Ok, fine, I just thought it was going to be you and me for lunch, that we were going to leave and I would make some excuse and come back here." He stands up straighter and kisses my fore head then says, "So I was right, it is about lunch." I unwrap my arms from his neck and push on his chest. "You know what, don't gloat, k, it's not cute." He laughs and the door to the bathroom opens; we step away from each other as my mother comes around the corner. "Ok, let's go get some lunch! I have a place in mind." She says on her way over to the couch to grab the papers from the coffee table. She looks up after she shuffled the papers in her hands to the couch. Her head cocks to the side and she sets the papers back down, and moves to the couch. My eyes shift to my wrist and back to the object she was now holding in her hands. "Um, Aria isn't this the bracelet Nana gave you?" Ezra steps forward with a shocked expression then looks at me. "Yeah must have slipped off my wrist." I say stepping forward and holding out my hand to get it back from her. She moves her hand back, "didn't you say you lost it a couple of days ago?" I push a piece of hair from my eyes, "I did yeah, but I found it yesterday, under my bed, it must have slipped my mind to tell you." Ella smiles looking at the object in her hand, the one thing that really proves I was at Ezra's this past Thursday instead of Spencer's. "Well, put it in your pocket if it's going to slip off that easily, we'll get it fixed soon." Ella says finally handing it back to me. Ella walks to the door as I slip the bracelet in my pocket and peer over to Ezra who's wearing the same look on his face as I am the one that reads that-was-close. Ezra picks up his wallet and keys and we head out of his apartment.

"Your dad brought me here a couple days ago after a meeting, it was good." Ella says walking around the corner of the restaurant. As we turn the corner Ella points out something across the street, "is that lady walking a cat on a leash?" Ezra and I turn to look and to our surprise she was. We step inside the door without seeing where we are eating but neither of us could forget Snookers.


	2. Remember Snookers?

Ezra and I step further inside the pub and memories rush back, filling me with happiness and concern. I'm afraid that being back here, where Ezra and I met, with my mother will cause chaos. I walk closer to the bar and let my fingertips slide across the stools, and then I notice it; the missing poster of Alison hanging on the bulletin board. All of a sudden I remember that day like it was yesterday. That song is playing and I hear Ezra's sweet voice ask 'you all right down there?' and picture him sitting just a stool away reading Ulysses with a scotch in his hand. I smile and look to my right and Ezra's in front of me touching the bar stool my hand is on and says with his boyish smile "you all right down there?" I smile and kind of shake my head remembering who else we're here with, "yeah."

Ezra leads me to the booth my mother is sitting at and we sit down across from her. Ella reaches across the table to grab my hand and says "I'm sorry, I didn't realize" then tilts her head to look across the room, "you know someone really should take those down by know." I shake my head, "no, no it's fine, seeing that made me glad, it made me remember something." My mom smiles, "happy I hope." I look over to Ezra, "very." Ella looks down at her menu then back up at Ezra to say "I didn't realize how close this is to you, have you been here before?" Ezra nods, "yeah, once or twice. Last time was my favorite though." Ella smiles up at him, "why?" He takes a sip of his scotch then reaches under the table to grab my hand and looks at Ella, "good music." "Oh, that's right!" Ella exclaims while reaching into her pocket and pulls out a quarter, "why don't you go pick a song" and hands me the quarter.

I come back and the menus are gone. Ezra slides out of the booth so I can sit down and says, "I ordered you a cheese burger…vegetarian of course." I smile, he knows me so well. Several minutes later the song I picked comes on. I look up a bit listening to the song. "God, I love this song." Ezra shyly smiles, "B-26." "Isn't that the title for that poem you wrote?" We look over at her with quizzical expressions on our face. "I… found a big poetry book with it turned to that page. I was in your room about a year ago while putting some of your clothes on your bed. It was very lovely, obviously about someone special." Ezra opens his mouth to speak but air gets stuck, he is at a loss for words. "Oh look, the foods here." I say, glad for the sudden distraction. The guy from behind the bar sets our food down and any mention of the poem was forgotten.

We are just about done eating when the guy from the bar came over with our check. "Uh, I'm going to go pee real quick." Ezra scoots out of the booth so I can get out and I grab my bag headed to the bathroom. I come back a few minutes later and find my mom outside. "Hey, where's Mr. Fitz?" "Uh, inside, going to the bathroom I think. I'm going to walk over to that little shop over there." "Ok I'll come with…damn it, I left my bag in the bathroom. I'll be right back and meet over at that shop." She nods then practically jogs over to the 'soaps and goodies' store.

I walk in the ladies room when all of a sudden I feel a pair of hands around my waist. "I was wondering if you caught on" I cock my head to the side a bit and Ezra says "I'm just a hopeless romantic. I thought we could… recreate the date." His hands slide up from my hands to my neck and I place my arms around his waist. "Did you really think you'd like to teach or were you hitting on me?" I scrunch my nose. "Did you really play B-26 or were you just hitting on me? And I wouldn't exactly call it a date. We ended the night in the bathroom." He smiles, "I remember. I think it went something like this" he says lifting me on to the counter. "And I did something like this" I say wrapping my legs around his waist drawing him closer to me as his hands find my face. He pulls my face to his and kisses me. *ring, ring.* Ezra pulls away from the kiss to look down at my bag on the counter. Ezra says "Must be mommy dearest calling." I pull out my phone and answer, "Hey how are the soaps and goodies?" "Good. Where are you two? Did he drowned or something?" I laugh, "No we're just looking at the jut-box." Ezra looks at me and I shrug my shoulders. "Good then I'll just come back." "Great!" I shut my phone and look at Ezra once he says "Hmm, that was shorter then I remember." I raise my eyebrows at him. "Well maybe we can finish it later tonight, somewhere else." He coyly smiles. "Like…my bedroom?" I smile back and lean towards his ear, "you'd like that wouldn't you?" He laughs a bit, "Would your mom be there?" I laugh, "Ezra! God you're so childish!" He tilts his head a bit, "coming from you." I hit his chest a bit, "that was low." "Yeah, I'm…I'm sorry. It was pretty low, I mean not as short as you, but it was low." He grabs my waist and sets me on the floor. I grab my bag from the counter and head to the door. "Oh, well now guess who's not getting any tonight?"


	3. Good Morning

"How was the Juke-box?" Ella says as we walk outside Snooker's. Ezra and I both smile at her and say in unison "good." We start walking back to Ezra's when I think of something. "Hey mom may I go over to Spencer's after we get home, she's going to help me study for that Chem. Test." She thinks it over, "yeah, sure honey." I look over at Ezra and hold up six fingers, referring to the time tonight. He crinkles his face. I mouth, so my mom doesn't hear, 'I do need to study.' He nods his head in understanding, and mouths back 'six is good.' Ella turns around to face me, "how long do you think you'll be there?" I take in a breath and pretend to think. "I don't know how long it'll take, after dinner probably. I'll call when I get there and figure it out." She smiles, "that's fine." We arrive back at Ezra's apartment a few minutes later and all walk over to my car. Ezra leans against my car and says "Thank you for lunch Ella." She smiles and replies, "thank you for coming with us, it was fun." Ezra and I both nod our heads. Ella hugs Ezra "bye Ezra, see you tomorrow." He lets go and says "good bye, see ya" then moves over to me. I hug him and say "By Mr. Fitz" he smirks and says "see you in class." Ezra walks back to his apartment and we drive home, making small talk about the afternoon. Once Ella pulls into the drive way I rush to open the front door and run up the stairs to grab my bag, with my books, and head back out the door yelling behind me "bye Ella, love you."

"Hey Spence!" I say loudly as I walk through her front door. I hear an "up hear" coming from up stairs. I walk up the stairs with my bag and find Spencer in her room. "Hey," she says smiling at me. "Hey," I say back plopping on the bed next to her. She looks at me quizzically which makes me ask "what?" She shakes her head with a small smile on her lips, "you just seem happy. Is it Fitz?" I smile really big. "I knew it, what happened! No, wait if you guys did it I don't want to hear anything." I shake my head laughing "No, Spence! We… My mom had to go over to his place to do some teacher paper stuff and I came with her. Then she took us to Snooker's." Spencer's eyebrows shot up then giggled a bit. "Snooker's as in the pub where you guys met? She took you there! Oh my God! So….how was it?" I open my mouth to speak but I don't say anything, trying to put it in the right term. "Uhmm….good. We had lunch and then recreated our date." I say with a sly smile creeping on my face. She caught on, "so you got frisky with Fitz. Sweet." "Yeah and about that, could you cover for me later? I'm going over for dinner after we study." She rolls her eyes, "yeah sure let me pull an excuse from the file and you'll be good." She says a bit annoyed. Spencer gets off her bed and slugs over to her desk grabbing her chemistry text book. I get up and walk over to her. "Spencer I'm sorry, I know you get tired of covering for me. It's just hard dating someone you can't actually date. Thank you for being there for me, I love you for that." She smiles a bit, "And I'm sorry for acting like this sometimes, I just wish you and I would hang out more." I nod, "that's why, you and I are going to have a team Sparia day. We'll do whatever you want on Saturday." She smiles then turns to face the bed "come on. We need to study."

A couple hours later and several chapters later I look at the clock, 5:47. "Hey Spence, I'm gonna go. Thanks for helping me." I gather my stuff together then crawl over to Spencer and kiss her fore head, "See you Saturday." She smiles, and I hop off the bed and head for the door. She yells after me, "Have fun with Fitz!" I walk out the front door and drive over to Ezra's.

"Hey babe" I say opening 3B with the key from under the mat. "Hey, how was studying?" He says stirring something in a pot in the kitchen. I set my bag and keys on the brown chair. "Good. Babe this smells great." I walk over and meet him in the kitchen then wrap my arms around his torso. We eat dinner on the couch and watch the usual classics marathon. We get through the second movie when my phone rings and I completely forget I was suppose to go home. "Hey mom…" I answer the phone and I hear a sigh on the other end. Great, she's upset. "Aria when are you coming home, it is a school night." I run my hand through my hair. "I'm sorry mom; I know I just really need this extra time to study. Spencer's doing a great job. May I sleep over tonight? I'd really help me." I hear no response on the other end until a few seconds later she comes back on, "that's fine. I'll see you tomorrow at school." I smile and nod my head even though she can't see, "yes, thank you! Love you." She forces out a small laugh "love you too, please get enough sleep." "We will." I end the call and cuddle back into Ezra to start _You Can't Take it With You. _ We end the movie marathon after a couple hours and he settle in to bed. Of course Ezra and I wouldn't do it but we do finish the night making out on his bed then falling asleep.

I wake up to the smell of a fresh pot of coffee and turning over in bed to face an empty spot where Ezra lay. I sit up and see he has laid out a towel and made me a cup of coffee that's on his bedside table with the proper cream and two sugars. I grab my favorite mug off the side table and check the clock which reads 6:33. School starts at 7:30 which means I have just enough time to shower. I take a few more sips of coffee then set it back down by the alarm clock and get out of bed. I shiver a bit due to only having on a pair of socks and Ezra's old Hollis t-shirt that just barely covers my bum. I grab the towel he has set out and walk over to the bathroom. I touch the ajar door and it slowly opens. The lights are off and Ezra is nowhere in sight. He must have gone for a quick run. I toss my towel over the shower rod and turn on the hot water. I shrug of Ezra's t-shirt and pull off one sock at a time. I almost hop in the shower when I hear the front door close. I slightly open the bathroom door and poke my head out to see Ezra wipe his neck with a kitchen towel. "Hey babe how was your run." He smiles and walks over to the door. "Good, I'm glad you're up. How'd you sleep?" I smile and blush a bit, "good, since you were there." He touches his hand to the door knob "when you're done I'm going to hop in the shower." I look down at his hand on the door knob, "or…you could join me." He shoots me a smile that I only remember seeing once and whispers "really?" I slightly nod my head and open the door an inch further and walk over to the shower. He opens the door the rest of the way and pulls his shirt over his head as I jump in the shower. Two seconds later he comes in the shower with nothing on but my eyes. "Screw my job" He says just above a whisper. I giggle and kiss him as the water hits both our bodies. Let's just say the shower took longer than usual.

I walk out of the bathroom in just a towel and see Ezra looking through his dresser for a nice button up shirt. "Shit." I say running my hand through my hair. Ezra looks over worried. "What? What's wrong?" I look up at the ceiling. "I completely forgot to bring clothes. Normally if I sleep over at Spencer's I'd just borrow some of her clothes, but…" He looks over to the clothes I wore yesterday. "Why can't you just wear what you had on yesterday?" "Because they're dirty and out of dress code and Spencer and my mom will recognize them." Ezra rubbed his forehead and thinks. "Don't worry," Ezra says now rummaging through a drawer and finds what he was searching for. "It's your skirt you left here about a week ago. And you can wear…" he says looking through another drawer, "this" he says pulling out an old button up shirt. "I use to love this shirt but I shrunk it in the dryer." I smile and kiss him on the cheek, "thank you. Really, you always find the good in a situation." I go over to my pile of clothes and grab my undies and bra then slip them on. Ezra pulls on a pair of slacks and a white button up that is basically a replica of the one I'll wear just his size and a different color. He grabs two different ties as I button up his old shirt and pull on my black skater skirt. "Hey which one should I wear?" he says holding up the ties. I look from one to another and grab the dark navy one with baby blue embellishments. "This one, it brings out your eyes." I put it over his head and fold his collar over then hold both ends in my hand. "Take the right one and bring it over the left." I follow his directions until I finish tying his tie. He peers over my shoulder to look at the alarm clock. "Shit, we have to go." He says walking over to the kitchen counter and fills a canister with coffee. I look over at the clock which reads 7:21 and run over to the brown chair and grab my bag and keys. He walks out the front door and I quickly follow and head down the hall. He locks 3B and I say "see you at school, love you" as I head down the stairs to the lobby with him close behind.

I pull up in the student parking lot at 7:25, after breaking a few laws of the road, and book it to class. I quickly walk down the hall and reach AP English and casually stroll in at 7: 27 and take my seat in the second row. Ezr… Mr. Fitz nonchalantly walks in two minutes later sipping his coffee. The bell rings as he closes the door. He turns around to face the class and says "good morning everyone" and looks at me and smiles. I look down at my notebook and blush, it was a good morning.


	4. The Shirt'

"Aria…?" Spencer says as we walk from our lockers to lunch. "Spencer…?" I say back with a smile as we get to the food area and grab our trays. Spencer questions "is that _your_ shirt?" I pick up a chocolate milk and place it on my tray then look at her. She raises her eyebrows after I don't answer "Because, it looks just like Fitz's." We finish selecting our food and walk over to our usual table. Hanna looks me up and down before we take our seats. "That's why you were both late this morning." "We weren't late… is it that noticeable?" I ask looking down at the shirt. "Yes." They all say in unison, but Emily giggles then says "but only to us. And any way why were you two barely on time?" "Guys what is this, 20 questions? I don't ask you about your relationships, why do you care so much about mine?" I say defensively before Hanna squeals, "Oh my god! Something happened between you two. That's why you're being so defensive and why you guys 'casually' strolled in to class." Spencer and Emily look at me probably trying to figure out what happened between Ezra and me. "So what is it, morning sex? No… you'd be all 'just had sex' happy." Hanna says, sadly shaking her head because she didn't figure it out. "No, Han, I think you might be right. This morning those two were smiling like no other." Spencer says waving her fork around as she talks. "Yeah, and that's why you two match. You didn't have any other clothes." Emily adds, happy she put two and two together, even though that's evident now. Spencer asks "So I'm assuming your mom thought you slept over at my house?" I sheepishly look down at my food, "yeah I should have called you once I got the ok from my mom." She smiles then gives me a wink, "it's ok, I'm sure you were preoccupied." I roll my eyes, "ok, can we please just eat?"

We finish lunch and head to our last period class, which goes by faster than I thought, because I'm thinking about last night, and this morning, and sadly this lunch, one minute, and the bell to be dismissed rings the next. I go to my locker to swop books and head to the parking lot when I bump into someone. "Oh, I'm so sorry." I say picking a book up from the floor for the person I ran in to. "Thank you," they say, I recognize the voice and look at the person's face and see my mom. "Hey, sweetie, how was last night with Spencer?" I smile at her then look at my hands. "Good." She questioningly looks at me, "just good? No Cosmo quiz and popcorn?" I laugh, "Yeah I mean that's what happened once we finished studying, I just didn't want to say that's what we did; scared you'd think we didn't study." We start walking to the parking lot. "Honey, I don't mind if you have some fun because I know you and Spencer would study until there's nothing left to study, especially Spencer." I chuckle, "I assure you my brain is completely full, thanks to her." Ella smiles and eyes my shirt, confused. "When did you get that?" "It's Spencer's, well Spencer's dad's but, there was this whole story that he shrunk it so he gave it to Spence, and now I'm wearing it." She nods her head smiling, "I didn't think the Hastings were ones to hammy-down clothes." I look at her from the corner of my eye, pulling on the shirt, "why do you think I'm wearing?" We both share and laugh and she grabs her car keys from her purse, "I'll see you at home." I grab my keys as well and push through the doors to the parking lot. "I was going to run by Spencer's will quick to drop this off and get my other clothes from yesterday." "That's fine," she replies and walks over to her car, as I do the same.

I drive to Ezra's, not Spencer's, and park on the street 'cause some old Volkswagen took my spot by Ezra. I walk through the lobby and say hi to Gary then take the stairs up to the 3rd floor. I knock on 3B and hear Ezra shuffling around to answer the door. "Hey, babe" he says kissing me in the door way then motions for me to come in. He closes the door and asks "how was the rest of your day?" I shrug, "good, except for the fact my friends were able to detect we did it, all from this shirt." He squints his eyes and rubs the back of his neck. "Well that was blunt." Then looks at his old shirt, "they really got that from a shirt?" I throw my hands up a bit, "yeah, I know, crazy right?" He walks over to the fridge, "water?" "Yeah, a bit" I respond picking up my clothes from yesterday, which Ezra so nicely folded and placed on his bed, into my bag. He walks over with a small cup of water and hands it to me. "Thank you," I say before taking a sip then setting in on his night stand. I un-tuck 'the shirt' from my skirt and unbutton it. Ezra chuckles and steps toward me to start re-buttoning the ones I just undid. "It's yours now" he says smiling down at me, tucking the shirt back in to my skirt. I smile, "I'll treasure it forever." "You better," he says in faux-discipline, before bending down and kissing me. We break apart about a minute later saying good bye before I leave.

I walk in the front door to be greeted by Ella lounging on the couch reading a book. I head up the stairs but her voice carries over from the couch asking "wait, what happened, did she not want the shirt back?" I come down a couple stairs until I can see Ella. "Yeah, she said I could keep it, that it 'fit me better anyways.'" "Oh, well, ok" she says then remembers something and sort of mumbles something, so I come back down the stairs. "Huuh?" I ask and she repeats herself, "today one of the other teachers came up to me and said 'your daughter looks so cute today, like a girl version of Ezra' I thought it was funniest thing. You kind of do look like him because of that shirt." I smile but somewhat freak out in my head. She smiles back at me before going back to her book. I head to my room, leaving the shirt on, and lie down for a nap. I'm still able to smell the general aroma of Ezra and his apartment on the shirt. Due to that I'm content to fall asleep.


	5. Breakfast with mommy dearest

It's Saturday morning in Rosewood and we all know what that means; eating breakfast at the Brew as you see that cute boy run around the perfectly trimmed park, and the adorable newlywed couple sipping coffee, and a group of gorgeous teenage girls with shopping bags hanging from their arms. My mother graces me with her presence asking me to have breakfast with her this morning. Of course how could I say no to free food?

We get to Apple Rose Grill, sitting outside, sipping our coffees, until a waitress brings our food. Ella talks about school for a little, asking me about different students, wondering what my thoughts were on them, like; 'is that boy really a "little shit" or just pretends to be' or 'did that one girl, Stefanie, really have mono?' Basically my mom is acting like a teenager participating in gossip. I like it, mostly because I get to talk about something other than worrying about all this A crap that the girls _always_ talk about. Our food comes and we dig in to the blueberry muffins. I finish off my coffee, and then head inside getting a refill to finish with the rest of the muffins.

"Thank you" I say as a lady behind the counter hands me my refill and a glass of water. She nods then goes to greet the next customer. I walk outside to see a man sitting in my seat. I clear my throat as I reach the table. The person turns their head and I recognize the adorable face that is accompanied by those lushes brown curls.

Ezra stands up and says, "Uh, I'm sorry, did I take your seat madam?" He steps sideways from my chair holding out his hands to grab the drinks from me. I give him a nod, as a thank you, and hand him the drinks, taking my seat. He sets the drinks on the table and takes an empty seat from the table next to us and sits.

"What are you doing here?" I ask him taking a sip of my coffee. He rubs the back of his neck/head and takes a breath. He responds, "I was on my morning routine run, and came here for water, when I saw your mom and thought I'd come bug her" motioning a hand towards her, smiling, but she rolls her eyes.

"Oh, uh here" I say handing him the water I got, "take this one." He gulps down the water and I say, with a smirk, "I didn't know you run." He shrugs, hiding the same smile back, "it helps me think and kind of wakes me up." Ella takes a bite of the muffin and Ezra asks "what were you two talking about before I got here?"

"Different students" Ells says in between swallowing her bite of food.

"Very lady like. Now I see were you got your eating habits from."

I hit his arm, "Hey I am a delight." He raises his eyebrows and points to his arm.

"Who hits?"

"Ahh! You deserved that one."

"Well, you also snore." I scrunch my eyebrows, mad he'd bring that up.

Ella pipes up, "how…how do you know she snores?" I look over to Ezra. 'Great! Good luck getting us out of this one.' "She fell asleep in class once or twice, threw off my whole game. I couldn't teach properly that rest of that class period."

"At least I don't laugh in my sleep like this manly man over here." I say, looking at Ezra. "One time in class we had to share one embarrassing thing about ourselves, and Ezra stupidly said he giggles, like a little girl, while he dreams."

"Well, I didn't say that, exactly, but yes I do _laugh_ in my sleep." I start laughing seeing how red Ezra's cheeks are getting.

Ella smiles, "oh come on, I bet girls think it's cute." Ezra looks over at me, probably remembering when Hardy told me in that bar how I said 'that's cute,' and gives me a small, knowing smile. I return the look and Ezra points at me saying…

"You know, Ella, I think you need to ground this one. First she's hitting me, now she's spilling my deepest secrets."

I grab my coffee then say, "but if I'm grounded I can't go over to Spencer's or Hanna's. I'd just be at home, all alone." Ezra caught on to the fact that 'Spencer's and Hanna's' really meant 'Ezra's' and changed his mind.

"Well maybe grounding is a bit too harsh, what about a good scolding? That'd probably do the trick." He says smiling, obviously joking. Ella scoffs, then turns to me and playfully wags her finger at me, pretending to be mad.

Ella takes the last sip of her coffee then grabs the plate our muffins were previously on and stands up, going inside Apple Rose. Ezra looks at me, "you look beautiful this morning, as usual."

I beam at him, "thank you, handsome." I take another sip of my coffee then raise my eyebrows about to say something when a voice rises, coming from behind Ezra and me. I look to see the owner of the voice to be Principal Hackett. He says, with an annoyingly douchebag tone of voice, "Mr. Fitz and Ms. Montgomery, enjoying your morning together?" He slaps a hand on Ezra's back. "Ezra you never really seem to help your case of the rumors being false if you are repeatedly seen with this young lady. I am sure you don't want people to believe these fictional stories, and Aria, I'd hate if people thought you were the one he's, well, seeing." Ezra stands up, stepping closer to Hackett, about to say something when Ella's voice comes from behind Hackett. "Arthur, what are you exactly accusing of my daughter? Because I'm pretty sure if I understand you correctly, you just called her a slut." Hackett's face is priceless, speechless. "We all know those rumors are false. I hope the next time you speak to them it'll be an apology." Hackett shakes his head, trying to wrap his mind around what just happened.

"I'm very sorry you two." He says then sheepishly walks away.

Ella sits down and I look at her. "Thank you." I smile and she grabs my hand, smiling back and says, "I just need to know…did I just lie to the principal? Please tell me no." I look at her, confusion apparent on my face.

"Lie about what?"

Ella shakes her head, "don't play stupid. You know exactly what about." She looks at Ezra. "About him and you, are you two…together?" I look at Ezra and pull my hand away from my Ella's grasp. Ezra looks hesitant. I open my mouth to speak but no words come out.

"We…" Ezra says. Ella looks at him, mad, very mad.

"You what?" She asks.

"We didn't meet as student/teacher…" Ezra says letting go of a breath. Ella runs her hand through her hair.

"Mom, we tried to stop. When we found out he was my teacher he said we couldn't, that is was wrong." Her eyes grow big.

She sets her hands in her lap and scoffs "You think? When I met you, Ezra, at the movies were you two together then?" Ezra and I nod our heads. She tries not to raise her voice and make scene but does talk a bit louder, frustrated at us. "You do realize I just told off the Principal. And what is your father going to say about this!" I roll my eyes.

"I don't know, not much I hope, considering he'd be a hypocrite." Ella shakes her head.

"I can't deal with this right now." She grabs her purse and starts walking to the car. I stand up and start to follow her, trying to get her to stay but she's already in the car by the time I even say something. I turn around and run my hands through my hair then cover my face. Ezra stands up and walks over to me. I hear Ella start the car but she doesn't move, and I don't really care. Ezra pulls my hands away from my face and holds them in his hands. "I love you" he whispers, then envelopes me in a hug.

I feel my phone vibrate and pull it out of my pocket. I open the text message to read. 'Do you love him?' it's from my mom. Ezra and I turn around to see Ella looking at us in the rear-view mirror. I nod, and she waves her hand for us to get in the car.

We get in the back seat and all she says is "we'll have to discuss this" then drives off.


	6. mommy dearest strikes again

_We get in the back seat and all she says is "we'll have to discuss this" then drives off. _

I shake my head, "yes, definitely….thank you mom."

She lets her head drop from the rear-view mirror on to the street. "Let's just go to your place Ezra. We wouldn't want Byron walking in." The car is silent for the next eight minutes. 

Ella parks in front of Ezra's and unlocks the car. We get out, quietly walking up to the apartment's lobby. Gary, from the front desk, sees Ezra and me, and says hi with a knowing smile, then sees my mother, with us, and looks confused but still waves at her. She does not wave back but instead marches, sternly, to the back stairs and up to 3B. Ezra and I sheepishly follow and finally reach his door. Ezra unlocks it and opens it for Ella and I. The second he latches the lock Ella explodes with rage.

"How in the hell could you do this to me, your father, your friends!? Do they know? Well of course they know, you probably haven't slept over once at their houses this year." She heavily sets her purse on Ezra's couch and places her hands on her hips continuing to rant. "You have kept this from us for what, a year and a half? After all those rumors and eyes staring at you, how did you do it? NO, it doesn't matter how you did it, just the fact that it happened."

"Ella, please calm…" Ezra tries to say.

"You sure do have some balls if you think you can tell _me_ to calm down. _You_ of all people I'd never thought you'd do this."

"Mom, please, he of all people is the reason I did this. He's the one person I'd risk everything for. Please if you just listen to what we have to say, to let us help you and us understand all of this."

Ella takes in a breath, "fine." She sits in the same brown chair from the prior meeting. Ezra and I take a seat on the couch across from her, further apart than before.

"What would you like to know?" Ezra asks.

"Why did you continue the relationship if you knew it was wrong?"

Ezra looks at me and I smile. I look at my mom and explain, "It was difficult, I tried to get a transfer out of his class right away, but thankfully it was declined. When we ran in to him at the movies, for me at least, was when I realized I really do like him and saw him as Ezra not as a complication or difficulty. We started to have dinner here and figure out how to be us at school. The point when I realized I love him was when he risked everything for me and asked nothing from me in return. He didn't mind losing his job if it meant keeping me safe."

I look up from my hands to my mother afraid of her response.

Ella looks slightly happier than before, but she still wants answers. Her eyebrows crinkle when she asks "safe from what?"

"Well first it was the rejection from you because he gave me the courage to tell you about dad's affair. Dealing with all of that, I didn't feel safe because I knew it was a big possibility that our family wouldn't stay together. Then the whole Alison's-been-missing-but-was-really-in-her-back-yard-this-whole-time-thing put a damper on my friend's and I, and I think he helped me a lot."

Ella was nodding her head, "I always thought you were a good influence on her, but now I know you did what I wasn't there for…and I want to thank you." Ezra smiles and grabs my hand. "But why did you risk everything for her? If she was just some silly school girl, why did you risk it all?" Ella asks, as Ezra squeezes my hand.

"At first I thought that's all it was, coming off of a high, an exhilarating rush of danger that had to be stopped, but I noticed that's how I felt each time I saw or talked to her. She is what I love, not just the thought of her, but her herself… I risked everything for her because she makes me happy. If I lost everything, my life wouldn't be over because she is now my life."

Ella shakes her head slightly and somewhat giggles, "Wow, I can see why you love him." Ezra and I laugh. Ella folds her hands and lies back into the brown chair. She asks, "Wait you're friends do know?"

I nod my head, "yes, ever since Hanna got hit by that car."

Ezra turns his head to me. "They've known since then? You did not tell me that."

"I'm sorry I'd just thought if I told you back then that they knew, you'd well, freak out."

"Damn right I would and I'd be justified. Aria, I can't believe you lied to me about something we both cared a lot about."

I lower my voice and lean in closer to him, "babe, can we please not do this now." My eyes shift over to Ella with my head still facing Ezra.

He nods his head and a small smile forms on his lips.

"Yeah, I'm sorry; it was going to happen eventually."

We both turn in our seats to face Ella again and I ask, "Anything else?"

She thinks for a second. "I hope this question doesn't offend you but you guys being together, does…that affect your grade?" She says the last part closing her eyes.

I laugh a bit, "mom, its fine. And no not at any time in our relationship have I gotten a boosted grade. Maybe every once in a while, though, he does extend a turn in date."

Ella lets go of a breath and looks back at me from Ezra.

"Mom…" I say looking at her with speculating eyes, "why did you defend us to Hackett? I mean you didn't know about us you just trusted us, and we let you down."

She sat forward in her seat. "You didn't let me down, just surprised me. And I defended you to Hackett because I wasn't going to let him ridicule you; I figured you've had enough of that over these past few months. Honestly I shouldn't be surprised about you two. After seeing how you interact I can defiantly see you care for each other."

Ezra and I look at each other and lean in for a kiss. I pull back and look at Ella.

She raises her eyebrows, "maybe keep the PDA down when you're around me."

Ezra nods then folds his hands.

"Ella, how do we go about this? We can't tell people just because you know, and there's no way in hell I want Byron to know."

Ella nods, "of course, I understand. And I want both of you to understand that I am not condoning this relationship. It's not like I won't let you see each other but I want you to be honest with me when you're sleeping over at Spencer's or when you're really coming here."

I nod my head, "yes, certainly. But how, it's not like I can just shout up the stairs to you and dad 'bye going to Ezra's'."

Ella rolls her eyes, "we'll deal with that when we get there, and for now I guess just pretend nothing happened."

"Wow, you are taking this way better than I thought," Ezra says.

"Yeah, mom, you are taking this fairly well."

Ella stands up, "well once everyone does find out they're gonna give you shit, you might as well have someone on your side."

Ezra holds out his hand to my mom, "thank you Ella."

Ella shakes his hand "yeah you better be thankful." She says with a smile.

Ella picks up her bag and walks to Ezra's front door. She's just about to walk out but manages to say, "Be home before dinner," and closes the door behind her.

I turn around to face Ezra with a perplexed look, "umm… was that real?"

"I'm not sure."

"Want some pie?" Ezra offers.

I reply "Pie sounds good."


	7. plot twist

I'm so sorry that this is like a month and a half late. I tried to make this one longer due to the lack of writing this summer. I hope you like it :)

Ella's POV

Byron walks in to the kitchen opening his thermal mug for coffee and looks over at me and Aria at the breakfast table.

"Hey, hone, what do you think about inviting Ezra Fitz over for dinner tonight?"

I look over at Aria to gage her thoughts on the question.

It's only been about a week since I found out about them.

Aria shrugs a shoulder tentatively so I look over my shoulder at Byron fixing his coffee.

I ask "why?"

He puts the lid back on his coffee and walks over to us, kissing me on the cheek.

"Oh, I don't know. Thought it'd be fun. Didn't you guys enjoy lunch with him the other day? And anyways you guys know him so well; I'd like to get to know him better."

I aimlessly nod my head, "uh, yeah we certainly know him better." I say smirking at Aria and she widens her eyes at me.

Aria speaks up, "uh, yeah, I guess that should be fun."

Byron looks at her, "it wouldn't be awkward for you though, you know him being your teacher and all?"

I look over at her and raise my eyebrow just waiting to hear her response thinking, 'this should be good.'

She shakes her head a bit, "uh, no it won't be… um we're fine…Ez, Mr. Fitz…I mean, it should be great, and you'll love him."

I laugh, "Yeah, Aria already loves him; I think you'll love him."

Aria awkwardly smiles shoving a mouthful of food to keep her occupied.

Byron takes that as his cue to leave grabbing his brief case and heading out the door.

The second the door closes Aria looks up at me with a stern sneer on her face.

"Mom, I know this isn't the ideal situation but please don't make this harder on Ezra and I. We've jumped through so many hoops and this dinner is just going to be another hoop."

I nod my head apologetically, "yes, I'm sorry about the joke, I'll try my best at dinner."

She lets go of a breath, "thank you."

I smile at her and grab my bag, "ready to go?"

Aria nods, standing up to walk her dirty dish over to the sink. I yell up the stairs for Mike to come down and two seconds later he's racing down the stairs with ease. He grabs my car keys to wait in the car and Aria and I soon follow.

Line break

Ella's POV

I park in the teacher's parking lot, after dropping Mike by the gym, and then Aria and I walk to the front steps together.

I put my keys away and look at my daughter, "do you want me to ask him or shall you?"

Aria smiles, "I'll ask," she tries to hide her excitement but I can tell she's happy to be seen with him, by someone, as couple rather than Mr. Fitz and his student.

I push the doors open and we go our separate ways once I tell her "have fun" and give her a wink. I see her roll hers eyes and head over to her friends.

Aria's POV

I meet the girls by our lockers with a worried expression plastered on my face.

Spencer looks worried once she sees me, "what's wrong" she says placing her hand on mine. I look at them then nod my head towards the girl's bathroom.

They follow me in and close the door behind us. I check under the three stalls just to make sure someone wasn't pooping and snooping.

I look up at them and let go of a breath before spilling my thoughts.

"My dad wants to invite Ezra over for dinner but the bad parts is my mom knows about us and I know, I know, I should have told you she knows I just kinda hoped that if I didn't say it out loud it wasn't true but she does. She actually took it fairly well but if something slips out during dinner we are screwed. My dad will not sit idly bay and except us."

I look at the girls faces.

Spencer's eyebrows are raised and all she can say is "wow."

Hanna and Emily are speechless but Hanna looks like she's about to burst out laughing.

Spencer shakes her head, "I'm surprised you've kept this from us for so long."

Hanna rolls her eyes, "yeah, especially because he's _all_ you talk about."

I give her the stink eye, "like you don't always talk about Caleb."

She looks down at the floor and mumbles something under her breath. I shake it off thinking she's probably just pissy because Caleb's gone right know.

Emily speaks up, "so what are you going to do? Are you guys going to pretend for your dad or…"

Someone walks into the girls' bathroom and looks surprised.

She looks at us motioning to the door, "uh, the bell rang a couple minutes ago."

Spencer checks her watch, "oh, shit, you're right. Thanks." She grabs my hand and gives it a squeeze then we all head out to the hall and over to Ezra's class.

The four of us walk in together with the class's eyes all on us.

Ezra turns around from facing the board with chalk in his hands.

I weakly smile at him, "we're so sorry we were in the bathroom and didn't hear the bell."

He smiles, "Ladies, it's fine. I'm sure this is the first and last time." We nod out heads and take our seats.

Spencer raises her hand, "Uh, Fitz…Mr. Fitz did you mark us absent?"

He shakes his head no then adds, "But if I could see you four after class," then faces back to the board to finish writing down the assignment.

Class passes with Ezra smiling every once and a while at me through his lecture.

The bell rings and everyone leaves but the five of us.

We gather by his desk and he looks at us, sitting on the edge of his desk, about to say something important.

He looks at his chalk dust covered hands then back up, "so I'm assuming you told them about Ella knowing."

I nod my head then he continues speaking, "Um…what if she tells?"

The four of us shake our heads and surprisingly Emily talks, "Ezra, we've known Mrs. Montgomery forever, she will never intentionally give you two up. She wants what's best for Aria and having people know about you guys is definitely not the best thing."

Ezra smiles at her, "thank you."

I grab Ezra's hand, "but…" I look over at them for help.

I don't continue but Hanna does speak up, "you'll be fine at school, we've known for a while and look how well that's been and anyway don't worry about tonight you'll be a perfect gentleman."

I laugh, "Yes, thank you Hanna."

Ezra looks at me confused, "tonight?"

"My dad wants you to come over for dinner. I guess he wants to meet the infamous Mr. Fitz, he's heard Ella and I talk about our little lunch the other week and then about breakfast."

Ezra sits up straight and looks to the corner showing off his dazzling smile, "well who wouldn't," he jokes.

The girls laugh but I roll my eyes, "cute babe, but are you in, does dinner sound like a bad idea..?"

He shakes his head, "no, it'll be fine. I think if we can handle Ella raging about us and dodge the sting of Hackett we can get through one dinner."

The girls look from Ezra and me.

Spencer says upset, "wait, what sting form Hackett, Aria you never told us about that!"

I turn to face them, "my mom and I were eating breakfast at the grill the other day and Ezra joined us. When my mom went inside to get some coffee Hackett saw Ezra and I and thought we were on a date. He mentioned that we should be more careful of our actions with all the rumors floating around and my mom dealt with him." The girls nod their heads in understanding and kids start filling up the class for next period.

Ezra hops off his desk, "uh you girls should head out" he says walking to the door and holds it open. We file out and I whisper "see you tonight" as I pass him.

I smile and say over my shoulder, "Bye Mr. Fitz, have a good day."

We all walk to our next class and I pass by Ella, who is holding her door open for students, as I reach my class. I catch her eye and she raises her eyebrows as in questioning if I asked Ezra to dinner. I smile and nod then walk into Trig.

Line Break

Byron's POV

I get home from Hollis around 5:30 and see Ella making dinner as I hang my coat by the front door.

"Hi hone, oh hey what did Ezra say?" I ask walking into the kitchen.

"He's coming at 6:00"Ella says getting the plates and silverware out.

"Oh, fantastic, wait five plates?" I ask looking down at the white dishes on the counter.

Ella looks over her shoulder smiling, "yeah Mike's eating with us. He thinks Ezra's 'the shit'."

I laugh, "Is that good?" I ask unsure of the phrase.

Ella laughs too, "yeah, means he's awesome or something."

"Who's the shit?" Aria asks coming around the corner of the kitchen.

Ella and I look up; "Ezra" Ella responds then asks, "Hey what are you wearing tonight? Do you think he'll mind if I just wear this" Ella says looking down at her outfit.

Aria picks a grape from a bowl on the counter and plops it in her mouth.

"Yeah, he doesn't mind, I mean I've worn…" she stops speaking then looks at me and smiles weakly before continuing, "never mind. But knowing him he'll probably dress up… Uh do you need help with dinner mom?"

Ella nods her head and gives Aria directions on how to make the salad dressing.

I loosen my tie and head up stairs to tell Mike it's almost time for dinner.

Ezra's POV

I look at my watch standing in front of the Montgomery's door and see it's 5:58. I take in a breath and say to myself, "it's just one dinner. We'll be fine, I'll be fine, you're good…you're good Ezra." I bring my hand up to the piece of wood standing between me and the Montgomery's and will myself to knock.

A few seconds later Aria answers the door and I'm able to let go of my breath.

I notice she's wearing an emerald dress I've never seen before and am unable to hold in the "wow" I say looking at her up and down. She smiles, blushing a bit, and welcomes me in the house. Ella walks over from the kitchen also wearing a dress and I hand her the bouquet of flowers I brought and say, "You two look lovely."

She smiles, "thank you. I'll go put these in water" she says looking up from smelling the flowers.

Aria leads me in to the kitchen to introduce me to her dad when I see her brother half walk half jog down the stairs. Mike reaches the bottom and we high-five, "what up Mike, how are you?" I say smiling.

"Good, glad you could make it Fitz." He says smiling back at me.

I see their father walk over to us laughing.

I hold out my hand to the man and say, "hi you must be Byron, I'm Ezra."

He shakes my hand and says, "Nice to finally meet you Ezra, I've heard so much about you from, well, everyone."

I laugh, "Mostly good I hope."

Aria shakes her head smiling, "mmm, not all good."

I raise my eyebrows, "I knew it. She's only saying that because I had to give her B on her last participation grade. She just… won't listen." I joke.

Aria jokes with me, "well it's hard when you just ramble on for an hour and a half about nothing."

"Hey, that rambling's important."

"Dinner's ready." Ella says bringing a big plate of food from the kitchen to the table.

The four of us walk over form the foyer and Ella asks Aria to get the drinks.

"I'll help." I say pushing my chair back in and walking over with Aria to the kitchen.

"The nice ones please," Ella says from the table.

I meet Aria in the kitchen to find her standing on her tip toes trying to reach 'the nice glasses' Ella asked for. Her finger tips just barley grace the side of a glass. She stretches out her tiny body and manages to ask me to get out the milk and water from the fridge and then open the bottle of wine that's on the counter. I laugh, shaking my head at her efforts to get the glasses down but still do what she asks. I look over from the fridge holding the carton of milk and pitcher of water to see she has successfully grabbed a hold of a glass. I set the drinks on the counter then start to open the wine when I hear her frustrated grumbling. I set down the cork- screw and bottle of wine and walk over to her.

I stand right behind her, setting my left hand on her waist, then reach up and grab the glass her fingers are reaching for with my right hand. I hand her glass after glass until we have five glasses on the counter. She lowers her head closing the cabinet then turns her body around to face me. I look over my shoulder, making sure her family can't see us, and thankfully there is a wall of cabinets blocking the view from the dining room to us. I look back to face Aria and wrap my arms around her waist then kiss her forehead. I whisper "I love you" as she looks up at me with a smile and replies "I love you too."

We separate and walk over to the table with the five glasses and drinks.

When Ella sees us she smiles and says "finally I was starving, what took you two so long?"

Aria sets the glasses down on the table and nonchalantly says "nothing."

I laugh and pour Byron, Ella, and me a glass of wine and say, "the glasses were a bit high for Aria" then add, "but I helped her."

Mike grabs the milk carton; "well now that you guys are here let's eat" then pours a glass of milk.

Aria rolls her eyes and sits down across from Mike. I pull out my chair and sit down next to Aria grabbing her hand under the table.

Byron says grace then we all pass around the food and dig in.

Several minutes in Byron asks me a few questions like 'why I wanted to become a teacher and how I liked Hollis when I attended and that he's surprised we haven't ran in to each other before, then asks "so how do you like having Aria?"

I almost choke on a piece of broccoli, "excuse me?"

Byron looks confused, "how…how do you like having Aria in your class?"

I raise my eyebrows and smile, hitting myself for the confusion; of course he meant having her as a student.

"Good, she's actually doing really well in class."

Aria looks over at me, beaming, "well when I have an incredible teacher like you it's easy to do well."

"Hey," Aria and I both look over to the opposite side of the table at Mike "is it true?"

Aria and I both crease our eyebrows.

Aria asks irritated, "is _what_ true?"

Mike looks at me, "well…about you know, those rumors?"

I look over at Aria then at Ella.

Ella intervenes, "Mike do you really need to hear that from him?"

Byron shakes his head, "what…what rumors?"

Aria rolls her eyes and runs her hand through her hair, "oh god,"

I speak up before anyone else can, "about me having a thing with one of the students." I say matter-of-factly. I'd rather Byron hear it from me than anyone else.

Byron shrugs his shoulders "oh, wow, really. Well obviously there's going to be talk about a new young teacher like yourself at that school. I mean it's Rosewood for heavens' sake."

I shake my head in bewilderment, "yeah, you're right, that's what I try to keep telling myself."

Mike sips his milk, "yeah, but is it true?"

Byron, Ella, and Aria, turn their heads to me.

Aria grabs my hand under the table and squeezes, so I turn to look at her.

She ever so slightly shakes her head no but I turn my head back to Mike, "uh…well,"

"No," Ella says. We all turn our attention to her, and she continues, "It's not true. Those rumors were shot down last semester."

I look at Aria and see appreciation for her mom in her eyes.

I shake my head, "yeah, those… those rumors are just that, rumors." I look over at Aria and then add quietly, "I mean, maybe at one point this one girl," all their head whip to look at me and I stop talking.

"No, go on, this is exciting." Mike probes on.

I look at Ella, then Aria, and finally Byron. Ella looks upset, confused. Aria looks, pissed but somewhat delighted, like saying this allowed will finally allow us to move on as a couple. And Byron looks perplexed, pleased almost, like he knows the feeling.

"She took my breath away on the first day of school. She sits one row over from the windows and is incredibly smart and _very_ strong minded. Um… we did connect in a way that could have led to more but we knew that wouldn't be smart. I'm pretty sure people caught on, quite quickly I may add, and that's where the rumors came from. We started to dial down the interaction which led to no interaction and that's where that all ended."

"Wow." I turn my head to the right to find Aria looking at me. "It was that easy?"

I let go of a sigh, "uhh, no. It wasn't easy. But, that's what had to happen."

Ella lets go of a grumble and Aria and I both turn our heads to look at her.

She picks up her glass of wine and takes a sip. Of course she isn't fine and dandy about us and is still upset that we didn't tell her sooner but she does not have the right to blow our cover, not now. Ella looks from Aria to me and says, "That is what had to happen" and raises her eyebrows.

"Mom." Aria says, sternly.

"Ella, what's going on?" Byron asks.

Ella responds, "ask your daughter."

Aria quizzically looks at Ella and very quietly says, "You were the one who just said those rumors weren't true. What were we supposed to do?"

"What should have happened, a long time ago."

"Really, because that's not what you said the other night, the other night you said you understand if we didn't tell him."

They start to talk at the same time, like a whispered argument that only grows quieter.

Byron interrupts, "obviously this is an argument best finished another time. We have a guest."

I joke, "Its fine, this brings back lovely memories of family dinners." I look at Aria who seems pleased to end that dreadful conversation then to Mike. "How about we talk about Mike, how's lacrosse?"

Mike smiles in between bites. "Good, great actually. I'm first string on varsity as of Monday."

All of us burst in to smiles and congratulations and continue with small talk until dinner is finished. No matter how terrifying it was after that hit and miss of the risky conversation earlier I'm having fun with all the Montgomery's. We finish the night with dessert. Mike goes out with a few of his friends from lacrosse and plays with them while the four of us continue talking.

"Mom how do you like working with Ezra?" Aria says as we move from the dinner table to the living room.

"Um, Aria you shouldn't refer to him by his first name, I mean…" Byron trails off.

I set my hand on Byron's back, "no, it's fine. I actually prefer it; it makes me feel more like a friend then her teacher. I'm always Mr. Fitz during school it's harsh having to be the teacher all the time."

Byron slaps his hand on my shoulder and laughs, "I understand completely. As long as it doesn't bother you."

We go over to the couch and lounge chairs and sit down.

Ella, Aria, and I sit on the couch and Byron in a chair.

I smile then turn back to Aria, "what did you ask again Aria?"

She shakes her head smiling, "uh, how do you like working with my mom?"

I joke, looking at Ella, "Oh, it's awful. She always talks to me at lunch, like I'm the only one there. And she always talks about her daughter, its exhausting, that girl _needs_ to sort out her priorities."

Aria laughs, "So are you Ron now?"

I laugh; of course she'd recognize the Harry Potter reference.

I lean in to her, "if you're Hermione."

Ella rolls her eyes, "yeah, and I'm Snape and your father's Voldemort."

"What is snap?"

Aria giggles, "No, dad, it's Snape and he's a character in Harry Potter."

"Oh, right, right, Harry Potter, of course." He says in a vague, 'oh yeah, I know what you're talking about, well not really, but I'll pretend' kind of way.

Ella asks me, "So, Ezra, how do you like having Spencer, Hanna, and Emily in class with you and Aria?"

I smile, glad that Aria actually did tell them, since they've known they've been able to help us.

"Fun, they're nice girls and I can tell Aria is happy to be with them again. I've heard all these stories about Alison and it's nice that she has her friends to go through all of that with."

Ella smiles and motions her hand to me, "yes, we are appreciative of them but she also has you too."

Aria looks at me and smiles.

I smile back, "yeah, I'm happy to be her… teacher." I say unable to say anything else.

Aria pipes up, "you've taught me a lot."

Byron mentions, "You know schools almost over. Aria, do you think you'll take AP next year?"

"Yeah. Of course I will. I'd be stupid to pass up another with this dweeb."

I laugh, "Coming from the girl who wanted to transfer out at the begging of the year."

"Honey, why did you try to transfer" Byron asks Aria. Ella gets up from the couch and heads over to the kitchen, her wine glass in hand. She looks at us arching her eyebrow.

Aria blushes a bit, "well it's a little embarrassing to admit this in front of you," she says looking at me, "but I tried because I thought you were going to be a distraction with your baby blue eyes and lushes locks of hair."

I blush I bit as well and ad a giggle before I say "The transfer didn't go through, and I'm kinda glad it didn't."

Ella comes back in, with a full glass of wine, and sits by me again.

Aria replies "yeah, me too."

Ella pipes in, "really? I think if you were going to be a, what did you call him, a distraction? You'd think you'd want the transfer to go through, make everything easier."

Aria turns her body on the couch to face Ella and gets a little upset. "Isn't life supposed to have hoops to jump though, make some things challenging so you can be grateful for the good things."

Ella sets her glass of wine down, "but when is too much hoops bad?"

Aria cocks her head, "when certain people don't accept how hard they've tried to jump through those hoops is when it becomes too hard." Aria gets up, pushing off from me knee and walking up the stairs, upset.

Ella lets go of a breath and leans into the couch. Byron looks over at her, "Ella was that necessary?"

Ella rolls her eyes, "of course it was neces," "let me check on her." I cut her off. "Please just talk about movies or _something_ aside from this. Please."

Ella nods her head, apologetically looking at me. I turn to walk up the stairs but turn back and look at Ella; I mouth 'it's ok' then go find Aria.

I find her in her room.

"Hey." I say opening her door.

"Why is she doing this!? She's the cool mom, I call her Ella. Why is she so hung up on the fact that you're my teacher? Yes we didn't tell them, well her, until now. But she's supposed to be supportive, not attacking us."

"Aria, try to keep in mind that this is hard for her too. She understands that she's in the wrong. Let's go down stairs and be civil. She'll say sorry and we'll continue to be cute. Just be happy your dad is oblivious and hasn't picked up on anything. And if the truth does come out we'll deal with that."

I wrap my arms around her and she says thank you then kisses me before heading back down the stairs.

I follow her down the stairs to be welcomed by a fist in my face.

I stumble back to realization and recognize the owner of the fist to be Byron's.

"Dad! What the hell?"

Byron starts yelling at me coming closer, "you son of a bitch! This whole night you were really talking about you and my daughter. I can't believe this happened. To think I actually liked you."

He kept coming closer to me raising his fist again. Aria steps between us.

"Dad, if you hit him again I swear you will regret it. I understand you're angry, and you have the right to be, but I though you of all people would understand."

Byron drops his hand looking at Aria with disappointment in her and himself.

He just stands there shaking his head.

Ella walks over to us from the corner and looks from Aria to Byron, hurt.

Aria turns around to check my lip then turns back around.

Ella stands next to Byron and asks, "What does she mean by that?"

He looks at Aria, mad, and points his finger at her, "no you are not turning this around on me."

Aria stands up straight, "really dad, who do you think I learned it from? You can't expect me to keep that for _over a year_ and just think I'll be fine. Not that Ezra was a coping mechanism or a fun 'let's see where this leads' but I don't have a wife or children, do I?"

I place my hands on Aria's waist and whisper in her ear, "Ar, should you be doing this?"

"Yes." She says back. "He does _not_ get to stand here and judge us when he is just as bad, worse even!"

Ella asks calmly, "Honey, what are you talking about?"

Aria screams, "He cheated on you! Your precious _husband_ cheated on you. With Meredith. His," she turns to look at Byron, "what is she dad? Your student, TA, assistant, friend with benefits?"

Ella looks so crushed. Byron looks hurt and degraded. Aria looks, well, awful.

Aria opens her mouth to speak again but Byron steps forward and talks.

"At least she wasn't a minor."

Aria's eyebrows crinkle, "oh that makes it so much better! At least I love him, you just screwed her because she was there and mom wasn't. You know why? Because she spent so much time being there for Mike and me, your kids!"

"You could have told her!"

"Yeah, and make myself the bad guy, no thank you. It wasn't my problem to tell, it was yours."

"Just like you told us about you and Mr. Fitz over here, oh wait you didn't."

He steps closer and closer to Aria, staring at her.

Ella steps forward and yells "Byron! Settle down."

Byron steps away from Aria and sits on the couch, placing his head in his hands.

Aria steps away from me and closer to Ella, "mom, why…why are you so calm?"

Ella looks over at her husband.

Aria looks questioningly at me.

"Mom, do you… how long have you known, about dad?"

She lowers her head then looks back at Byron.

"A few months. I got suspicious when it happened two years ago but let it go when we went to Iceland. Then we came back and you and your father went back to whispering in corners so I did something about it, again."

Byron got up from the couch. "What do you mean 'you did something about it, _again_?'?"

"When it first started I questioned people at Hollis, listened in to phone calls from the hallway; I even followed you once and saw that Aria and Alison witnessed the same thing I did."

Aria shakes her head, "what?"

Ella explains further, "the day you and Alison ran into your father and Meredith, I was there too, parked on the street after following Byron form Hollis. I've known about the affair since then, I just couldn't bring myself to ask or tell or really do anything."

Byron abruptly stands up from the couch and walks over to Ella.

He quietly says "You've known."

Then loudly shouts, "You've known, this whole time!"

She slower turns her head to face her husband and steadily says, "Yes. I have."

Byron's eyebrows crinkle.

Aria steps away from me, crying, towards her mother.

"I have had to keep this from you for over a year when in return you've known this whole time, knowing that I saw exactly what you saw, and you said nothing. You, _my mother_, did absolutely nothing to make sure if I was okay. How could you live with yourself?"

Ella's eyes are graced with tears about to fall. She step closer to her daughter and tries to place her hand on Aria's shoulder but Aria jerks back.

Aria steps back holding her left arm out towards me and I grab her hand and squeeze it, giving her comfort. She chokes back a sob and manages to say,

"No matter how long I have kept Ezra and I a secret there is no way it matches dad first having an affair and second making me keep it from you and third you actually knowing this entire time about." She pulls my arm and we walk to the front door. "You may be okay with all these lies and secrets but I can't handle living in a house where my parents can't understand the simple notion of honesty."

Aria grabs her jacket and we leave the Montgomery house hold with tear stained cheeks and a growing headaches.

She stumbles to my car and I help her in.

I'm just about to put it in reverse and leave when she speaks up and quietly says "thank you. For everything. You are the one constant in my crazy life."

I smile at her then lean over in my seat and kiss her cheek.

"My only goal is to make you happy."

She smiles back, whips a tear from her cheek, and says, "You, Ezra Fitz, achieve your goal every time you look at me."


End file.
